Could Be Latest in Growing Number of Abduction Attempts by Tribesmen or Criminals

SAN'A, Yemen—The botched kidnapping of two U.S. Embassy officials in Yemen last month lacked most hallmarks of an al Qaeda attack, leading some security experts to contend it was latest in a growing number of abduction attempts by tribesmen and criminals targeting Westerners.

Yemeni officials have variously blamed the attack on tribesmen or on the Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, an active offshoot of the global terror...